The BLANK LINE

The LOCAL UNDERGROUND…

I’ve enjoyed every process of what I’ve done for this project, but there are times when you have to depend on someone to pull through with the final result, and they fail or don’t provide the courtesy and respect you’d normally deserve. This is our day and age when good business ethics have all but disappeared.

First, the sidewalk logo turned out pretty much the way I wanted. The stencil took forever, considering I had to cut over 500 pieces out. The painting process took a couple of hours due to dry time and dehydration. It all finally turned out. While I was spraying the stencil, I noticed the type of people walking the streets. Considering it was Friday the 13th, I knew this was going to be bad. Even WITH four orange cones surrounding this thing, people still walked on it and stood in the middle of it. The ones I noticed, your usual trash. Thanks Hot Springs for being classy and considerate. The logo ended up getting trashed on the first night.

Lastly, the T-shirts were coming in, and I was excited to say the least. Anything that gets produced here in Arkansas always makes me nervous. After having gone through so many print companies, I’ve discovered they all tend to f up. Section 8 in Little Rock especially, after one… simple…. job. Normally, when you send a printer a file, they turn it to a negative for screen print. These guys just used the image as the negative. And this goof up came from the manager directly. He tried to blame me for the mix up and would refuse to take responsibility. After speaking to this moron for half an hour on the phone, running in circles, he still wouldn’t budge. I was in disbelief with this guy’s reasoning. Nothing was accomplished and the institute was out over three hundred bucks.

So, the first image is what I sent. The second, is what they printed on the shirts. Pretty dumb. I tell ya, that company was lacking some common sense.

Get more info on ARKUFF HERE at the official site and make sure to hit up the FB fan page HERE.

The FILM SERIES…

The Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute decided to do a little series of films every Thursday leading up to the Underground Film Festival. Films such as Plan 9 From Outer Space, Rashomon, Freaks, and Night of the Living Dead will be shown.

Of course, proper advertising was in order, so I put together the poster for the theatre and a series of ads to be shown every week on various Fly N Hog screens across Arkansas.

The LOST ROMANTIC…

After watching a little Brit film called Cashback and sharing the sentiments of the story’s young protagonist brief experience in art school, it reminded me of what I use to love to do. I began drawing when I was around six and the idea of being an animator for Disney had been regularly fed to my psyche. I only cared to draw and master the line and form throughout high school, aiming to that goal. After five years of art school and experiencing the pretentious, political and bureaucratic mentality within, I became jaded with it all. I didn’t draw anything for five years. I immersed myself in photography. But it just wasn’t the same. I missed it. I missed life drawing. It wasn’t until I moved to California and became a toy designer that I picked up the graphite again. I jumped directly into drawing from memory and imagination after having left it all behind. I’ve realized tonight how much I miss drawing. It’s been a struggle to maintain the drive…

Regardless, I’m still a hopelessly romantic artist. Perhaps, sometimes it just takes a beautiful muse.

The SAD DADDY ALBUM…

Brian Martin finally made an album, well, some of it.   Joe Sundell and Melissa Carper had an equal share in that endeavor. Those three sure make one hell of a band.  Now you’re looking at the album art. The ‘sad daddy fish’ was drawn by Hot Springs tattoo artist, Trey Steelman. I toned down the colors and layered it on a more aged paper. We were trying to get more of a Sailor Jerry look for this. I would like to have done a better job with it, but last minute deadlines are a bitch. Perhaps if some people would get things to me earlier when they’re supposed to

The 19TH HSDFF…

The official 19th Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival poster and program guide cover.

Visit HSDFI

Sad DADDY…

Brian Martin needed a poster for his new band, Sad Daddy. This idea for the poster was played off the fact that Brian always catches little fish when he goes out on the lake. I took a photo of his arms holding a plate with a sad sardine on it. What we didn’t realize is that most cans of sardines don’t have the heads attached. Originally, it just looked like a headless lump of fish. As a replacement, I found a nice photo of a mackerel and photoshopped it in. It ended up working out so much better. And honestly people, I don’t see how you all eat sardines. They smell so horrible. bleh.

There’s a new band headed everyone’s way this year in Arkansas. Watch out!

Joe Sundell – Vocals, Banjo, Harmonica
Melissa Carper – Vocals, Upright Bass
Brian Martin – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica, Mouth Horn

Visit the band atSad Daddy

EVOLUTION in IDENTITY…

Lately, I’ve felt the need to just do things without permission. When I see something that bugs me, I tend to OCD on it and figure out how to improve it. The Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute needed a little help with their image. I felt that they needed something a little fun and inviting, yet somewhat cynical. This series has gained quite a positive response from the young community, as well as the old. Enjoy…

Visit the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute at www.hsdfi.org

BIT OF A CHANGE-UP…

Some things were really bugging me about the old ‘resonator’ poster that I made for Brian. It needed to be HIS, so I took a photo of the one at his house and I transformed it into the water color look like the previous version. He and I both agreed that it needed some ‘age’ to it. The white space was just too much, too modern. At one point, he and I sat in his kitchen and burned the edges of paper to get the look he wanted. That didn’t quite work out. In the end, I just ended up using a really hi res paper texture stock photo that I purchased. Shortcuts people, shortcuts. (This ended up being the front part of his business card as well.)

Hear some of his music at www.BrianMartinMusic.com

New BRIAN MARTIN POSTERS…

Hear some of his music at www.BrianMartinMusic.com

The WEBSITE…

These days, since people have a wide range of technical differences in their computers, it’s difficult to create a new ‘up to date’ website without some people experiencing compatibility issues. I’m not so concerned with those that still use Internet Explorer 6 or old grandpa machines. IE6 will be dead soon. Even though I integrate some Flash coding, I’m hoping that HTML5 will someday be our savior from the world of Flash’s memory intensive programming and compatibility problems.